Boy at War
2001 novel by Harry Mazer
The Boy at War trilogy is a series of young adult historical novels by Harry Mazer. The first book, A Boy at War was released on April 3, 2001 and is based on the events of the attack on Pearl Harbor that initiated the United States' involvement in World War II. The books follow Adam Pelko, the son of a navy commander stationed at Pearl Harbor, during the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941.
Synopsis
Adam Pelko, son of a naval commander Lieutenant Pelko is forced to move to Honolulu because his father is reassigned to Pearl Harbor. Adam is enrolled at Honolulu High School which frustrates Adam as people at Honolulu High School have a dislike of military kids. However, Adam does manage to make two friends, Davi Mori and Martin Kahahawai. Davi is a Japanese-American, while Martin is a Native Hawaiian. One day the boys decide to go fishing early in the morning at Pearl Harbor. As they are fishing on the land, they find a rowboat and decide to take it out into the water. They hear airplanes flying overhead and Davi cheers because he believes these are American planes, but Adam sees they're really Japanese, soon their rowboat explodes, and a piece of wood penetrates Martin’s chest. He is wounded, but doesn’t die.
The public source identifies “Boy at War” as 2001 novel by Harry Mazer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around novel, Harry and Mazer.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4952155. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001 and 1941.
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This entry incorporates text from “Boy at War” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.